A new HS theatre under construction

[BillConnerFASTC]

I swear I posted some pictures of this from an earlier site visit but can't find that thread. (If a moderator can find the other thread, merge them and I'll try to continue posting progress in that one.) Anyway, here's progress since, taken a week ago. Thus is around 850 seats on 2 1/2 levels and 50' stage with orchestra pit.

View from DSL to USR and loading bridge and modified gridiron (catwalks)

Pit (rail) with block outs for lip speakers. This pit has a tensioned wire grid under the pit filler platforms.

And lastly, I watched from the balcony - the JLG ballet. The "aperture" effect then passing was kind of cool.

 

[macsound]

quite incredible for a high school
I worked in a community theatre and community college theatres that weren't nearly this well outfitted.
Great job!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Found it! Earlier pictures half way down. https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/middleton-be-safe.44424/

(Edit by Mod. https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/middleton-be-safe.44424/#post-387410 and six subsequet posts.

 

[JonCarter]

All pre-cast tilt-ups? Must have been lotsa coordination to get the electricals in & at the right places.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Combination of some recessed, house is all furred and gwb, and surface in upper areas of auditorium and stage, just not stage level on stage. Some niches designed in where things can be clustered.

 

[JohnD]

The photos @BillConnerFASTC posted make me think of a new facility being built at Oklahoma State University.
https://osugiving.com/mcknight-center
The 360Degree video and the construction progress videos are interesting, you have to realize that they are primarily ads for donations to the endowment fund.

 

[SteveB]

We had a photographer at our newly opened facility a few weeks back, he was some famous guy, flew in from San Fran. Needed some support to get lighting systems turned on for the pretty pictures, all good. When he got to the large music rehearsal space that had been re-purposed for the theater dept. to do an MFA production, the theater tech's said "NO, we are not opening the big curtain so you can get a shot out the windows of the campus (the set was in the way in any case)m wey're in the middle of focus". Photog guy made a huge stink, made phone calls, 2 to me "No" I said, they are doing a focus, they need the curtain closed all day, it's their only focus day". Photog threw a fit, went to the Theater Chairperson, went to the Dean. Curtain stayed closed.

What the photag guy couldn't know was we were aware these were photo's to be used by the architect so they can submit for an award for "best design" in some magazine and that ALL the staff is unhappy ("hates" would not be the wrong word to use) with the architect for the many, many problems we deal with due to bad design choices as well as a deliberate lack of communication with the end user, who they knew existed and had our phone numbers and e-mails, we had been on the initial design meeting. So YES, we have an attitude and NO, we am not cooperating much with your photographer to make pretty pictures.

Bad attitude I know, just wishing Bill had been on the project.

 

[EdSavoie]

I can hardly believe there's a high-school board left willing to spend the money on a theatre... Not that i'm complaining, i just haven't seen a high-school built after the 60s with a full theatre.

 

[JD]

I can hardly believe there's a high-school board left willing to spend the money on a theatre... Not that i'm complaining, i just haven't seen a high-school built after the 60s with a full theatre.

It's not so much the money for new construction that is the problem these days. It's the hassle of maintenance, where after built it's a major undertaking to find funds to replace a single lamp!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I can hardly believe there's a high-school board left willing to spend the money on a theatre... Not that i'm complaining, i just haven't seen a high-school built after the 60s with a full theatre.

Must be a lot more. I'm just one solo office. I think in US there are 40-60 theatre consultancies, many solo or just a few people, a few large ones - maybe in range of 150-200 people full time. (If you have read many of my posts, you'll know I don't include vendors and sales reps - they don't give unbiased advice nor do they generally have expertise covering the full range of theatre design. Nobody sells aisles after all, and so on.) So this was a big year - 10 new build high school theatres for me. 4 to 6 is not uncommon. 20-30 years ago maybe 1 to 3 a year.

Back in very early 2000s the DOJ asked me to develop some stats on theatre planning - numbers and dollar values - for impact of ADA. We estimated that in US thereweresomewhat over 500 theatres - assembly occupancies built for the purpose of performing arts - with a value near $4 billion. NOt sure how many were high school but I'd say at least half. One manufacturer is pretty good with data but ultimately, they only seem to find the high school segment statistically significant.

50,000 high schools in US? I think in that ballpark. Probably more than half have theatres - more than a cafetorium. Pretty sure more than 2% are built new or major rebuild. More than half of mine are "PAC additions" to existing high schools.

Its too bad that the industry doesn't do better with the research and stats. How many manual line sets are there? How many motorized? ETC knows average number of dimmers and fixtures from many high schools. How many rigging accidents, pit falls, opening nights, and so on. Great stuff to research.

 

[venuetech]

So it looks great but I am curious about access to the load plate. From the plans I see a spiral staircase on the house side of the procinium. But the photos show no access from there to the load plate. Is this something that will get cut in later? Or am I just not seeing things right?

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I like to get the vertical circulation out of the wings to maximize clear floorr space. So its behind the cheek wall, goes up to a jump at foh catwalk level. In this one there is just room for a ships ladder to end of loading bridge. Usually extend catwalk into stage under loading bridge around 25 to 30 feet above stage and and ladder up 10 to 15 feet through loaing bridge.

 

[danhr]

It's not so much the money for new construction that is the problem these days. It's the hassle of maintenance, where after built it's a major undertaking to find funds to replace a single lamp!

One of our LD's does design/consulting for a local suburban high school. Not being an electrical guy last fall he asked me to "take a look at some of the instruments." At least 20 were dead, with either bad lamps, cooked sockets or both. I sorted through what we could get going with just a lamp replacement (about half) and figured out a ball park number. After checking with the district, the answer was basically, "we don't really have a budget for that....."

 

[venuetech]

One of our LD's does design/consulting for a local suburban high school. Not being an electrical guy last fall he asked me to "take a look at some of the instruments." At least 20 were dead, with either bad lamps, cooked sockets or both. I sorted through what we could get going with just a lamp replacement (about half) and figured out a ball park number. After checking with the district, the answer was basically, "we don't really have a budget for that....."

The building secretary would call the budget “the shifting sands” our process for the next fiscal year starts in the early fall and is firmed up by mid November. So next September is when to submit to your administrative office.
But you should try to make them aware of the needs this year so they can figure just where to pigeonhole that lineitem. For example I would submit a work order to the facility maintenance department for repair of lighting fixtures . What the heck, they might fix them and you would just need to align the lamp. Do they rent the space?
Renters and parents can justifiably squalk about broken fixtures. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[epimetheus]

So it looks great but I am curious about access to the load plate. From the plans I see a spiral staircase on the house side of the procinium. But the photos show no access from there to the load plate. Is this something that will get cut in later? Or am I just not seeing things right?

I like to get the vertical circulation out of the wings to maximize clear floorr space. So its behind the cheek wall, goes up to a jump at foh catwalk level. In this one there is just room for a ships ladder to end of loading bridge. Usually extend catwalk into stage under loading bridge around 25 to 30 feet above stage and and ladder up 10 to 15 feet through loaing bridge.

I'm with venuetech, in post #1, the first picture, it doesn't look like there's a opening in the proscenium wall to access the loading bridge from the spiral staircase. Will they cut this in later? I would have thought it would have been cast into the wall panel.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I see your question. The opening is not there yet. Yes, the CM prefers to cut all openings after erection. Less breakage during erection. An opening for a 6' door in one end of 10 x 50 foot cast panel is apparently and understandably more likely to break.

 

[venuetech]

So danhr’s comment brings up the question how is the owner/operator planning on administrating the new facility? Will they add or do they have knowledgeable staff? Will they add a line to their annual budget for maintenance and improvements? They are aware that annual equipment inspections are needed? I am assuming most of this is addressed for new buildings.
These questions are not directed at any one facility but rather new venues in general.
I know at my old school district they now have a small staff that deals with 4 district wide venues. So administration of the facility is not directly linked with the high schools that they are attached to. They do work directly with HS staff to meet their needs.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

In this case, besides having stated at first meeting with school that they will need more manhours to operate the new facility, I believe they upped the manager position from 1/10 time to 1/4 time, and have allowed for hourly work.

It is indeed unfortunate that funding for performing arts facilities in public schools is now or never, a once in 40 or 50 year bond issue that includes the arts.

I consulted on a $140M arts high school in a major city, built while teachers were being laid off citywide. School facilities built with bonds are totally apart from operating budgets and payroll.

 

[macsound]

I've worked with schools on Bond based networking upgrades, mostly those that had 10BaseT and upgrading fiber backbone or adding wifi or even older when only the library had networking at all.
Usually, the budgeting of the bond allows some labor to be included for post buildout. Usually they consider this maintenance to be a network admin who gets paid through the bond and not the school's budget and therefore usually runs out after 2 years while maintaining about $25k in reserves for possible disaster and overhire needs.
In that period of time, they are able to take someone who previously worked at another school, give them a "promotion" and move them to the district so they can manage multiple campuses at 1/5 or 1/6 time.

 

[epimetheus]

I see your question. The opening is not there yet. Yes, the CM prefers to cut all openings after erection. Less breakage during erection. An opening for a 6' door in one end of 10 x 50 foot cast panel is apparently and understandably more likely to break.

Gotcha. There's definitely an art to precast construction. It's things like this where you have to rely on your precast vendor and experienced construction forces for constructibility and it's influence on design.